In 2010, China overtook the United States in installed wind power capacity when they reached the 42,287 megawatt benchmark. With their wind power capacity already up 60% in the first quarter of 2011, and plans on track to install even more throughout the year, experts think China’s wind power generation could expand rapidly and perhaps help bring down their carbon emissions by 30%. With global carbon emissions actually up in 2010, this boost in renewable energy for one of the world’s largest emittors of carbon could be a promising sign for the future.

Though China’s installed capacity is higher than any other country in the world their per capita wind power capacity and per GDP wind power capacity still pale in comparison to the world leader in both those categories, Denmark. The Danes are crushing us all with their amazing 680.3 MW of capacity per million people — China has 33.6 MW per million people and the US has 129.6 MW per million.

In 2010 China installed a whopping 16,500 MW of new wind power capacity and this year has a number of 10,000-MW wind farms that are currently under construction. With their exponential wind power growth the Global Wind Energy Council says that China still faces some huge obstacles that could hamper the total integration of this new found energy source. With their current wind power capacity — 42,287 MW — the country’s electric grid is extremely strained and they seem to be lacking a clear plan to develop China’s offshore wind resource. With 200 MW planned to be installed by 2020, the government of China should start planning some infrastructure changes so that they can make efficient use of all this new clean energy.

The wind power GDP is a little disingenuous. China is the most populated country on the planet. For them to compete with that number, they would have no land left. But, more power to them for using what land they do have. And without the power the of the people to file lawsuits and NIMBY-ism, they actually get things done.

The American western plains should be covered with these things already. But, noooo, people complain about them being an eyesore.

Zach ShahanJune 1, 2011 at 5:07 pm

Thanks for re-covering this, Brit. And for amplifying our bit about per GDP wind power and per capita wind power — interesting stuff to look at (i think we spend too much time talking about total instead of this — me included :D).

China is looking good — got a lot of issue to tackle, but is clearly a cleantech leader.